White House Hopes Report Will Change GOP Minds On Climate Change

The White House is hoping that its massive new report Tuesday, which found that climate change is already harming Americans, will cause Republicans to change their minds on the issue.

John Podesta, an adviser to President Obama on science and technology as well as an influential player in Democratic circles, told reporters on a conference call he’d like to see Republican “deniers” accept the scientific consensus.

“Hopefully with this report, they might review it and change their minds,” Podesta said, in response to a question about the political impacts of the report.

Congressional Republicans broadly doubt or deny the scientific consensus that climate change is real and man-made, which 97 to 98 percent of climate scientists believe.

On the call, Podesta and top scientists who worked on the report stressed that climate change isn’t a distant threat and is already impacting all regions of the U.S. and key sectors of the national economy.

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Sahil Kapur is TPM's senior congressional reporter and Supreme Court correspondent. His articles have been published in the Huffington Post, The Guardian and The New Republic. Email him at sahil@talkingpointsmemo.com and follow him on Twitter at @sahilkapur.